In recent years, in therapy of myocardial infarction and the like, there has been widely known a therapeutic method in which a sheet-shaped cell culture obtained by cultivating and organizing the patient's own cells is transplanted to the affected part. Such a sheet-shaped cell culture is thin film shaped and is therefore fragile. In addition, it is highly liable to stick to itself because of its water content. Accordingly, a skillful maneuver is needed to take the sheet-like cell culture out of the culture dish and transfer it to the affected part or into another container.
In order to transfer such a sheet-shaped cell culture, therefore, a transferring instrument is used. For instance, Japanese Patent No. 4569971 discloses such a transferring instrument, wherein a sheet supporting member which can be freely curved and can adsorb a cell sheet is provided inside a cylindrical housing pipe so as to be movable back and forth. The sheet supporting member is housed inside the housing pipe in a cylindrically deformed state. After being moved to the outside of the housing pipe, the sheet supporting member is unfolded into a planar shape by a pneumatic pressure supplied from an actuator, and adsorbs the cell sheet. In addition, by varying the pneumatic pressure in the state where the cell sheet is adsorbed on the sheet supporting member, the sheet supporting member with the cell sheet adsorbed thereon is curved and deformed into a hollow cylindrical shape, and is moved toward the housing pipe, to be housed inside the housing pipe.